[deck] budget parfait

[MiRtSoPoUlOs]

hello everybody I am a new user on the mana drain and this is my first post so bare with me

     parfait everyone has heard of it and i have seen a few players playing a version here and there at mana drain events but it doesnt seem to be too popular with mtg budget players. i recently have been working on a build of parfait and the usual build that i see is red black white and it uses the land tax scroll rack engine. well i have been bored lately and have built a version of parfait that uses land tax but i personally thought that i did not need the scroll rack, and of course it kills with belcher. now the colors i have chosen are white green black. i know right now you are saying that i am pretty insane but my playtesting against friends in my town and they are pretty decent i guess one of us plays stax another plays enchantress   which is a really fun match up for me because of post board. ok on to the deck list.


mana base
3 swamp
8plains
4 forest

enchantments
4 land tax
4 sterling grove
3 humility
2 pestilance

artifacts
3 goblin charbelcher
4 zuran orb
1 sol ring

instants/interrupts
4 argivian find
4 wing shards
4 swords to plowshares
1 enlightened tutor
1 disenchant
1 wail of the nim(maybe spoils idk)

sorceries
2 duress
4 night's whisper
1 demonic tutor
1 balance
1 regrowth

sideboard
4 aura of silence
4  warmth
3 engineered plague
2 tormod's crypt
2 gilded light


so far every game i have played with it against friends and other people i know it has averaged around a turn five victory and when i compare that to other decks like white weenie and the rock which is basically some of the metagame at my tournament i participate in. so basically i have a anti control metagame because people there still think aggro is great and the only reason control loses in my opinion is because there is just to much rush. i also am constnatly going up against a person on tmd that lives in my town in round one or goblins and i always get screwed because he is a great player and goblins just are too fast and too stupid so basically my tournament is one big non blue deck tournament except for me when i play G.A.T. and tmd user when he plays any deck lol. so i would appreciatte any criticism both constructive and just plain old mean and i also would not mind advise either

     i hope everyone enjoys my article and don't think less of me for writing it
 and more importantly thank you for your time.

[bonblaireau]

If you want to play a parfait with black, you have to play 4 duress in your deck.
Also scroll rack is one of the best card in parfait why don't play it?
For more explanation, you can see the the topic of parfait in newbie forum.
I don't think green could great in parfait, but good luck for your tests  

[MiRtSoPoUlOs]

thank you very much for your opinion i am very grateful that someone responded and so far my tests have gone pretty good. so fat the average kill is turn sixish and the green is pretty useful because of sterling grove and regrowth and i use the sterling grove to tutor for the cards like humility, land tax, and pestilance. but thank you again for your constructive criticism and i think that u do have good ideas thanx for your time

[AnFgangsta]

Well Parfait itself is a budget deck..it does not require power to play. When playing belcher though, Scroll Rack is so necessary its not funny. I would ditch the black all together, I mean its not going to be extraordinarily helpful with today's meta. Splash red, or atleast 1 mountain into the deck, it works great with belcher, you stack your deck using scroll rack and its just a beautiful thing. Red does open the Gorilla Shaman opportunity which should be taken advantage of, artifacts are going to be your worst nightmare.

4 Swords to Plowshares and 4 Wing Shards is not necessary, Id keep the swords, maybe sideboard shards, Im not sure what Parfait used to sideboard.

I dont see pestilence as being good in this deck, last time I checked when no creatures are in play it is gone..and the only creatures left in play after you use it are those which are going to pound you in the ground (AkA Akroma, SoTN, etc). Plus, Humility makes it pretty much a waste, and its mana cost does not help either.

All of the black, even Night's Whisper really should go as I said, Scroll Rack is 1000x better than whisper.

I would HIGHLY recommend Ivory Mask, thats some help against slaver Assuming you get it out fast enough, and it resolves, so Maybe play Orim's Chant and, or, Abeyance.  Ive seen some decks running Isochrom Sceptre, and I mean although many do not like it in this deck, it may end up being one of your only hopes against Slaver, and disenchant on a stick is just great against Stax, etc.

Wastelands might be a good idea, take out those Bazaars of Baghdad and Mishras Workshops which are going to be a big threat early in the game.

Since Zuran Orb is your only 0 drop, consider Chalice of the Void in sideboard so you can stop those moxes etc from dropping in Storm decks, and also to slow down Stax and Slaver for a turn or two. I would also add a few more disenchants, you must protect yourself from artifacts.

Bonblaireau: Well I mean its a tough choice when it comes to green, but against slaver, besides Chalice of the Void, Ivory Mask is going to be important, I feel it MUST get out, so the use of the grove does help you find and protect it.

A big problem with this deck today is in fact one of the more important cards in the deck, Land Tax..its just not good anymore when you consider what is being played. I mean artifacts are going to be producing 90% of their mana, they can easily win with one or two lands..and you can barely cast anything with that much, so I dont know what to tell you except dont think you are going too far witht his deck ebcause it will be successful against like your average local store tournament deck, but once you leave that circle expect problems.

[VonDouche]

Parfait was once upon a time the only deck I dreamed of crafting for my forays into the world of Vintage.  I read all the literature on the deck, learned of its origins, and playtested it constantly.  As time went on, there was the unfortunate problem of non-colored creatures being used in the attack step.  This killed all your hope of staying alive with story circle, but Parfait was not out yet in my mind.  Soon, more and more artifacts made the core of every good vintage deck.  The collateral damage to this was that now your biggest advantage (a surplus of dead cards in your opponent's deck) had fallen apart, and Parfait was "hated out" without anyone trying.  

That being said, I still have a soft spot for the deck, and continually have a version of it saved on apprentice for random occasions I have nothing better to do.  My impressions are that Belcher is probably the best win condition you could hope for in a deck running Land Tax/Tithe, but Eternal Dragon is also a very valuable part of the deck.  He gets plains out of your deck same as tax/tithe, but cannot be countered outside of stifle.  Worst case scenario, he becomes a 5/5 flying beater in the very, very late game (which unfortunately will never happen in the current state of the format).  I have also found Isochron Scepter to be a valuable tool in any deck of Parfait's style.  Unfortunately, this gives more cards which can be hit with artifact destruction.  

The deck, relying so much on belcher for its win, needs to run as many artifact producers of mana as it can.  I'm not saying go out any buy moxen, but things such as Mana Vault, mox diamond, grim monolith, and the mirage diamonds can be helpful to your cause.  This thins out the lands in the deck, as well as letting you get more out of tax/tithe/scroll rack.  

As for the rack issue, it is definately at least 2 or 3 spots in the deck.  Rack lets you use those lands you've been drawing, by trading them for busness cards from the top of your deck.  They get shuffled right away by tax/tithe/dragon, so its not like you'll be drawing them again for the next three turns.

Back to the land base, usually around 17-20 mana sources (including artifacts) are all you will need due to tax/tithe.  Wastelands and a strip mine are good to be added in on top of the other mana producers to add a marginal amount of disruption to your deck.

My sideboard generally consisted of things like abeyance/orims chant (I generally had 2-4 of one maindeck and more of the other in the side), REB if using red at all, tormod's crypt, and random other goodness like jester's cap.  At one point I considered fountain watch/leonin abunas to protect my artifacts and enchantments, but found them pretty aweful with a humility on the board.  Humility being your only source of staying-alive-itude was the card to win out over the others.

The largest problem with Parfait however, and one which cannot be overlooked, is that it is a control deck with absolutely no disruption.  Your list has duress, which as stated earlier should be a four of in the deck.  Many used Chalice of the Void to try to overcome this to marginal success, and even Crucible of Worlds has lost much of its power since many more basic lands have been introduced to the format.

In conclusion, although it is a hero in my eyes, Parfait is an underpowered, unresponsive deck in the most broken format in Magic.  As far as casual play goes, I applaud you for using a somewhat established archetype, but if you ever consider playing competitively, I would recommend looking to a different archetype.  I hope my comments helped a little, and feel free to PM me if you want more info on the deck, or one of my lists.

[AnFgangsta]

Von you also forgot to mention LAND TAX is so crucial to the scroll rack draw engine..the tax is just bad these days, this significantly hurts your drawing and setting up for belcher =( Id get the coffin ready for parfait because unfortinately its day has come.

[bonblaireau]

VonDouche: can you post here one of your list?

[VonDouche]

This is one of my lists I crafted towards the end of last year, right after Oath hit it big at SCG.  I haven't had much time to keep it up to date due to scholastic obligations, and its not exactly a budget list.

//NAME: Parfait
        1 Strip Mine
        4 Wasteland
        5 Plains
        2 Plateau
        1 Lotus Petal
        2 Mountain
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Chrome Mox
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Diamond
        2 Crucible of Worlds
        3 Blood Moon
        1 Humility
        2 Goblin Charbelcher
        2 Eternal Dragon
        1 Balance
        1 Enlightened Tutor
        4 Swords to Plowshares
        2 Abeyance
        2 Orim's Chant
        4 Isochron Scepter
        3 Tithe
        2 Land Tax
        3 Scroll Rack
        2 Aura of Silence
        3 Argivian Find
SB:  2 Disenchant
SB:  3 Chalice of the Void
SB:  3 Cursed Totem
SB:  2 Rule of Law
SB:  1 Orim's Chant
SB:  2 Abeyance
SB:  2 Aura of Silence


The deck obviously has all of the problems I pointed out before.  Replacing the power from the deck can probably be obtained with a trade of 2 expensive ($$) mana producers with one land, and one mirage block diamond.  Without a lotus, argivian finds aren't nearly as good, but I would still include them because of artifact destruction.  As mentioned earlier, tax is pretty bad at the moment, as it relies too much on your opponent, so I have more tithe in the deck because of its interaction with scepter and its gaurantee of a land fetch.

I had originally figured that the swords would completely destroy Oath, but then i realized that they had countermagic.  Most of the sideboard is there for combo matchups (chalice, rule of law, abeyance, orims chant), and the totems are for any welder matchups.

Like I said before, I haven't had much of a chance to modify it, but the blood moons have seriously lost their appeal.  The red can probably be removed altogether and replaced with black for duress and the like, although that would reduce the efectiveness of the belchers.  I would also try to put another humility in there, and possibly a wrath of god or something of the like.

The deck is slow in most cases, but can be very fast with a artifact mana and charbelcher start.  If you want to play the deck, make sure to test a lot, and be sure that its what you want to do.

[Carlos]

This is one of my lists I crafted towards the end of last year, right after Oath hit it big at SCG.  I haven't had much time to keep it up to date due to scholastic obligations, and its not exactly a budget list.

//NAME: Parfait
        1 Strip Mine
        4 Wasteland
        5 Plains
        2 Plateau
        1 Lotus Petal
        2 Mountain
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Chrome Mox
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Diamond
        2 Crucible of Worlds
        3 Blood Moon
        1 Humility
        2 Goblin Charbelcher
        2 Eternal Dragon
        1 Balance
        1 Enlightened Tutor
        4 Swords to Plowshares
        2 Abeyance
        2 Orim's Chant
        4 Isochron Scepter
        3 Tithe
        2 Land Tax
        3 Scroll Rack
        2 Aura of Silence
        3 Argivian Find
SB:  2 Disenchant
SB:  3 Chalice of the Void
SB:  3 Cursed Totem
SB:  2 Rule of Law
SB:  1 Orim's Chant
SB:  2 Abeyance
SB:  2 Aura of Silence


The deck obviously has all of the problems I pointed out before.  Replacing the power from the deck can probably be obtained with a trade of 2 expensive ($$) mana producers with one land, and one mirage block diamond.  Without a lotus, argivian finds aren't nearly as good, but I would still include them because of artifact destruction.  As mentioned earlier, tax is pretty bad at the moment, as it relies too much on your opponent, so I have more tithe in the deck because of its interaction with scepter and its gaurantee of a land fetch.

I had originally figured that the swords would completely destroy Oath, but then i realized that they had countermagic.  Most of the sideboard is there for combo matchups (chalice, rule of law, abeyance, orims chant), and the totems are for any welder matchups.

Like I said before, I haven't had much of a chance to modify it, but the blood moons have seriously lost their appeal.  The red can probably be removed altogether and replaced with black for duress and the like, although that would reduce the efectiveness of the belchers.  I would also try to put another humility in there, and possibly a wrath of god or something of the like.

The deck is slow in most cases, but can be very fast with a artifact mana and charbelcher start.  If you want to play the deck, make sure to test a lot, and be sure that its what you want to do.

Hi VonDouche, i´m also a big fan of Parfait and it always have been my pet deck.

A couple of questions about your build:

- How can you manage the drawback of the Mana Crypt in this deck? Parfait can be a very, very slow deck and a Crypt in the firsts turns could means a lot of points of damage. I also use the Crypt in my build but have doubts about it. I know that add Claws of Gix to the deck instead of Zurans can help, but the Zurans are very valuable in my meta.

- I also think to include Eternal Dragons in my build but i noticed that the synergy with Humility is terrible so i keep my 2 Belchers like the only win condition.

[dksxmks]

Mana Crypt in my experience has been really strong. A first turn Blood Moon or second turn Humility is just awesome. But unless you're playing against FCG or Workshop Aggro the Crypt is just an upkeep of 1.5 dmg per turn, which can be easily balanced out with Zuran orb.

I have not used Eternal Dragons so I don't have any experience with them. But I would think the 5 mana to bring him back is a little too much. I've also been testing Decree of Justice for the kill. They're much faster than Sacred Mesa and less vulnerable than Belcher.

[jeremy_78]

I have played parfait for a long time, and I feel that the best build is something like this:
10 Draw
4 Land tax
3 Tithe (can cut 1 march 20th bc/ of 3sphere)
3 Scroll rack

27 Good Stuff
2 Seal of cleansing
3 Humility's
2 Blood Moons
4 Swords
4 Orims
2 Isochron Scepters (4 is too many, and 1 is too few)
1 Enlightend Tutor
1 Zuran Orb (slaver scares me too much to md more)
2 Agrivian Archealogist (reoccurence)
2 Disenchant
1 Balance
2 Slice and Dice
2 Aura of silence (whites 3sphere)
2 Win
2 Belchers

20 Mana
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Plateau
1 Mountain
10 Plains

Sacred Mesa is too slow of a win condition.  Belcher has natural synergy with the deck.  I have thought about using decree as a secondary kill.  Your gonna want to pack at least 5 sb cards for your weakest matchup combo, you play 2 rule of laws and 3 gilded lights.  Then you ll probably want to run 3 ReB's bc/ control isn't easy as well.  In general with parfait you dont want land you cant suck out of your deck (ie wastes, strip, ancient tombs, LoA.

[bonblaireau]

Are you sure you want to play Argivian ARCHEOLOGIST? Maybe it's a mistake, argivian find is always better...

[VonDouche]

I have found that every form of mana acceleration you can fit in here should belong in here.  If you try goldfishing the deck a few times, you realize that with playing one land or an artifact for 3-4 turns, and having no responses to anyting your opponent can and will do, you stand no chance.  At least with the artifact accelerants you can shoot for an early win with a belcher.

Creatures are overrated.  Trying to play/recur your dragons will deem pretty far fetched, and it very much is.  They are there pretty much only so you have a few nigh-uncounterable ways to fetch your plains.  Maybe once in 50 games or so, you'll actually get to the point where you can recur your dragons, but thats pretty mucha moot point.  The uncounterability of them is why they should be played.  If you don't like them, don't play them.  Its that simple.

[dksxmks]

I have found that every form of mana acceleration you can fit in here should belong in here. If you try goldfishing the deck a few times, you realize that with playing one land or an artifact for 3-4 turns, and having no responses to anyting your opponent can and will do, you stand no chance. At least with the artifact accelerants you can shoot for an early win with a belcher.

If you want to do that, why don't you just play 2land belcher. Parfait is a control deck (almost to a point where it's just a hate deck). The acceleration that gets put in is to accel silver bullets like Humility, Blood Moon, Rule of Law, or even Sacred Ground (for stax obviously) that help control the game while establishing a draw engine with Tax/Rack. I run 12 accelerants and they allow me to go first turn Tax and Rack, second turn Humility, which is just awesome against Control Slaver.

Archeologists obviously have negative synergy with Humility... All creatures do for that matter.

[Mog]

I agree that most of the time you aren't using your acceleration to power out belchers.  I usually don't like to see belchers for a while, until I'm about to win.  I'm not sure which build of parfait is the best, but I think that it's very flexible.  White is very flexible with any color and you can do lots of funky things that I think would be kind of fun to play.  

My friend had suggested Academy Rector in order to fetch out your enchantments and maybe even spot the Illusions-Donate combo with it, as some other decks have been using.  That would probably be best as a W/B build of parfait (known as Blackberry) to spot hand disruption such as Cabal Therapy and Duress.  Black can provide some nifty tricks and some pretty cool board options that might be effective against some of the unfavorable matchups like Combo.  

Eternal Dragon would two-fold: as recursive land search and as an uncounterable threat.  It could be used effectively, but in the correct deck.  I think that non-red decks should probably be spotting mobilization over charbelcher because they will probably be slower and more mana intensive.

[jeremy_78]

I meant agrivian find not archealogist.  The goal of parfait is slow control.  You lock down your opponent with humility, blood moon, seals, swords, and scepter.  While doing so you get your draw engine going and to find anwsers.  You wind with a late game belch with 1-0 land left in your deck.

[dksxmks]

Anyone tested Burning Wish? Wishing for that critical Balance, Slice and Dice, Replenish, or even Decree (for the kill) really helps. I moved 1 of each to my board and it freed up space for more nasty enchantments (4th humility and 4th bloodmoon).

[einlanzer625]

i noticed complaints about story circle. since most of the creatures played these days (with the exceptions of oaths guys, and platty A) dont fly, why not run moat? or form of the dragon (i got mike long to sign two of mine )

[cardiffgiant]

I too love Parfait. In the pre-proxy era, it was my one of my two favorite type one decks (second being Enchantress).

I agree that Land Tax isn't the asset it used to be. I'd probably have it in the SB though for game two against control.

I love Ivory Mask, but probably wouldn't use it these days. It's too slow for when you need it. I would probably use True Believers and Gilded Light instead. It will be a road bump against combo one or two turns earlier.

Two of the cheapest disruptors of many decks are Root Maze and Null Rod. Root Maze can be amazing in slowing the game down

If you define Parfait as a prison/control style deck using Land Tax/Scroll Rack as a draw engine, then I have to agree that Parfait is dead. I think white prisons decks could still be playable, but you definitely need another draw engine.

One card I'm really liking is Sensei's Divining Top, but I have found any way to make it card advantage.

Good luck and have fun.